Hucknall councillors demand action to resurface town's problem roads

Couns Lee Waters and John Wilmott (both Ash Ind), say have been regularly reporting roads like Beardall Street and Derbyshire Lane to the council for months.

But Coun Waters claims he has been told verbally by council bosses that they ‘won’t consider a full resurface job on the Hucknall roads until 2027’.

He said: “Since being elected to County Hall in 2021, I have reported more roads and pavements to be fixed than ever before.

"My neighbours on Beardall Street have been bitterly complaining, however, and I agree with them.

"This is just one of the roads I am campaigning to get re-surfaced across Hucknall, but by far the worst.

"I have written to council bosses every few weeks for months and they have told me it won’t get a full re-surfacing job for three years.

"The road, like many others across Hucknall, is dangerous and needs sorting.

"Others across Hucknal has also repeatedly reported but the county council is doing nothing.”

Coun Wilmott added: “After a two-hour walk around Hucknall town centre, and the surrounding areas, with officers from the coutny council, we were appalled with the state of our broken roads and pavements.

"Council officers were visibly shocked.

"There are serious road issues on Papplewick Lane, Yorke Street, South Street, and Portland Road amongst others, while on Derbyshire Lane and Beardall Street, the road surfaces are totally unsafe.

"It’s clear residents cannot wait one week, never mind three years to get these roads resurfaced.”

Your Dispatch has contacted the council for comment.

However, when previously asked about the number of potholes on Hucknall roads, a council highways manager said: “Recent severe weather episodes have taken a significant toll on Nottinghamshire’s roads.

“Severe flooding causes substantial damage to our highways, which then deteriorate further when heavy rainfall is combined with sub-zero temperatures to create a ‘freeze/thaw’ effect.

"The freezing conditions in turn require us to grit our major road network for safety reasons, but repeated gritting can also weaken the asphalt on our highways.

“It is therefore inevitable that we are experiencing a rise in reports of damage to our roads and pavements at this time.

"We are battling as hard as we can against the effects of these weather events.

"Residents may see an increase in emergency repairs as we work to keep our highways safe throughout the winter.

"We will still however be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can, which residents can see at nottshighways.co.uk and we will continue with large-scale patch repairs as part of our four-year Highways Improvement Plan.

“We recognise this is a really important issue, and we have secured a major new transport fund, with £1.5bn which will be controlled by the new Regional Mayor and Combined Authority.

"We consider this to be a big opportunity to invest in improving our roads.

“Over the past seven years we have invested an extra £40m in road maintenance.

"We continue to lobby central Government for more funds, as do most highways authorities across the country as they contend with similar problems.